I got mosquitto-bitten to all hell last night. There were no trees for my hammock, so I just set up my sleeping bag on the porch. Which was fine. Until sundown. And then I was drowning in bugs. It didn't help there were so many porch lights and lawn to attract them. I tried just throwing my bugnet over me, but that turns out to be less than useless because they just land on the net and bite you through it anywhere your skin is up against it. It was not a great night, and my arms and forehead are lined with ugly bumps now. But I slept some, and endured until morning.
I ate a dry bagel with peanut butter, some of the last of my trail mix, and some granola bars for breakfast, and got on the road by around 7:30. Right away, I was fighting the wind. It was out of the northeast, the two directions I needed to go. It sapped out the spirit of adventure that carried me yesterday. I still did what I could to stay along the lake as long as I could, but wasn't taking any big detours. I enjoyed some nice views on the lake even still. Along with the wind, my other hassle was that I found myself running down on riding food and couldn't seem to buy more. I stopped at a highway-side bakery, found some cookies that looked good, but then discovered to my dismay they didn't take debit or credit. Then there was a convenience store that was the same way. ...Then there was a No Frills grocery store, where only after getting all my food to the check out line did I discover they don't take Visa. It turned out serendipitous because I went just a short ways down the line to another grocery store, Sobeys, that not only took Visa but also had free Wi-Fi. I got my granola bars and also a macaroni salad, and I utilized the precious taste of connectedness while I ate it on a bench.
I got on a bike path shortly after that, getting there by taking a gravel path by an industrial area at the end of a dead end road that looked very suspect, but it turned out Google steered me right. It was a nice trail, despite a random warning sign about its condition. Along it I ran into one bicyclist who told me he had met one of my "colleagues" from Ohio who was biking around Erie...as if all is bike tourists know each other or something. I ended up making an error and not taking the turn I should have on the trail to go to the other side of the river and instead got on a very gorgeous trail along this strip of an island. It was quite nice, really. ...Except that it terminated in a dead end. I simply wasn't having that, and I walked across a railroad track to the bike path. It was a short distance and there was no real danger to it, and it saved me a long ride straight back, so spare me any judgments.
Not long after I had a bike tourist rush to catch up with me and we chatted for awhile. He was from the Midwest too, Iowa, biking from Washington to Maine, headed to see the Falls today. We rode together aways until I went left and he went right, each continuing our own adventures, both heading to their end, mine closer than his. I meandered a bit, failed to find a bike path Google claimed I could take, got to ride down a nice steep hill that warned cars not to pass bicyclists (considering they would probably be doing the speed limit anyways), and got to take road with bike lane most the way to my place for the night downtown.
My host was absent, at work, but she left instructions on her mailbox, and the key to her place tends to hang out there a lot on a magnetic clip. Her upstairs neighbor was kind enough to hold the door for me to bring my bike in. I made myself at home as instructed and took a shower. When my host arrived we had a nice chat, talked about traveling, her job in urban planning, old buildings, and looked at lots of places on Google Street View, noting areas like northern Canada where there are no views to be seen. Then I went to get dinner, ending up being boring and getting Subway when it turned out the local vegan joint I wanted to try is presently closed. Shortly after the other guests for the night arrived. I had okayed her accepting them as guests as well when they requested a stay after me, because I never want people turned away if it can be helped, especially fellow bike tourists as I was told they are. ...They're not really. They rented some comfort hybrids to ride for a couple days while doing some traveling around the area before they both head back to Czech Republic where they're from. They hopped a bus for a stretch today because they just couldn't handle those headwinds I was fighting. It's all fine; I still wouldn't want anyone turned away. But I was hoping that in turn for making this a tight squeeze of four people sleeping in one room of a studio apartment that I would get to meet other bike tourists. But such is life.
I'm really excited to see Niagara Falls tomorrow, and to get back stateside too (though not so much to be in the busy Buffalo). The tour is drawing to an end, hard as that is to believe.
Not long after I had a bike tourist rush to catch up with me and we chatted for awhile. He was from the Midwest too, Iowa, biking from Washington to Maine, headed to see the Falls today. We rode together aways until I went left and he went right, each continuing our own adventures, both heading to their end, mine closer than his. I meandered a bit, failed to find a bike path Google claimed I could take, got to ride down a nice steep hill that warned cars not to pass bicyclists (considering they would probably be doing the speed limit anyways), and got to take road with bike lane most the way to my place for the night downtown.
My host was absent, at work, but she left instructions on her mailbox, and the key to her place tends to hang out there a lot on a magnetic clip. Her upstairs neighbor was kind enough to hold the door for me to bring my bike in. I made myself at home as instructed and took a shower. When my host arrived we had a nice chat, talked about traveling, her job in urban planning, old buildings, and looked at lots of places on Google Street View, noting areas like northern Canada where there are no views to be seen. Then I went to get dinner, ending up being boring and getting Subway when it turned out the local vegan joint I wanted to try is presently closed. Shortly after the other guests for the night arrived. I had okayed her accepting them as guests as well when they requested a stay after me, because I never want people turned away if it can be helped, especially fellow bike tourists as I was told they are. ...They're not really. They rented some comfort hybrids to ride for a couple days while doing some traveling around the area before they both head back to Czech Republic where they're from. They hopped a bus for a stretch today because they just couldn't handle those headwinds I was fighting. It's all fine; I still wouldn't want anyone turned away. But I was hoping that in turn for making this a tight squeeze of four people sleeping in one room of a studio apartment that I would get to meet other bike tourists. But such is life.
I'm really excited to see Niagara Falls tomorrow, and to get back stateside too (though not so much to be in the busy Buffalo). The tour is drawing to an end, hard as that is to believe.
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